Florida boy stabbed to death had invited suspected killer for pizza the night before

By:
Eliot Kleinberg, Palm Beach Post

Updated: Mar 14, 2018 - 3:13 PM

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Florida boy stabbed to death had invited suspected killer for pizza the night before

PALM BEACH GARDENS, Fla. - On Sunday night, Karen Abreu took her son, Jovanni Sierra, to play paintball. He was a day short of his 13th birthday. Later, the family grabbed a big table at an Italian restaurant in Downtown at The Gardens.

"He was my angel for 13 years," Abreu told The Palm Beach Post by phone Tuesday, the day prosecutors formally charged Johnson, 17, with murdering her son, as well as slashing one other boy and the woman hosting the sleepover.

On Monday morning, a Palm Beach Gardens officer and two detectives came to Abreu’s place of work to tell her that her son was dead.

"My son didn't deserve this," she said.

Now Abreu has a gift, unopened.

‘An amazing soul’

"My son was an amazing soul," she said. "He had the biggest personality wherever he went. He brightened up a room. He always told jokes and made people laugh. We always told him he should be a comedian."

Abreu said she came from Colombia and lived briefly in Missouri, where Jovanni Sierra was born. She said the Watson P. Duncan Middle School student played soccer in a youth league and aspired to be a marine biologist. She said Jovanni Sierra has an 8-year-old sister, Isabella. Abreu said her husband, Oliver Abreu, a construction worker, “loved him as his own son.”

Abreu's Facebook page shows a photograph of her son with the words, "Rest in Peace." One person posted in Spanish, "There are no words."

Jovanni Sierra's Facebook page has only a few postings. The most recent was on March 20, 2017, and contained a baby picture. It had one comment, from a woman who wrote, "I had so much fun with you when you were a baby. You have turned out to be such a good boy. Love you Jovanni."

‘God has taken an angel’

Abreu said services for her son are pending but are tentatively set for the end of this week at the Christ Fellowship church in Palm Beach Gardens.